Melted Sugar
by Luithia Clen
Summary: You did it. You got out there, you fought for a better life and you won. But some wounds take time to heal, so be careful. You'd be surprised what opens them up again. Vanellope-centric oneshot. Plus some friendship fluff.


I might be fudging some canon for the sake of this. Then again, I don't know how resetting a game actually works.

* * *

Swirling clouds of powdered chocolate were tossed up from beneath Vanellope's kart as she sped through the landscape of Sugar Rush. The arcade was closed, and the game had already finished its nightly race to decide the following day's roster. Vanellope had gotten first, again, although Taffyta and some of the other racers had put up some good competition. Every once in a while she considered letting one of them win on purpose, but once she got behind the wheel of that car the adrenaline hit and she couldn't help driving her absolute best.

The rest of the racers had stayed around the finish line to play a game of malted milk ball. Vanellope had been extended an invitation to it of course, but she still hadn't driven her fill for the day. Now she was speeding off-road through the many sweet areas of their racing game. The scents of cocoa, vanilla and a dozen other ingredients filled her nostrils as she swerved through the curving valleys. Soon she was past the frosted, cakey hills and was racing through the forest of candy cane trees. As the pink and white strips whipped past her, Vanellope noticed an area ahead walled in by sharp, curving cliffs, as if someone had taken a giant spoon and scooped out a piece of the land.

Feeling adventurous, as she always did, Vanellope floored the gas pedal and ramped up onto the cliff. She let the centrifugal force hold her tires to the wall as she drove across it, angled almost perpendicular to the ground. When she neared the end of the wall she turned the wheel sharply, sending her vehicle into a spinning motion as she went airborne. The front end of her kart caught on the frosted ground, then the back end, then the front again. She tumbled across sideways for a little longer before throwing her body back and letting all four of her wheels hit the ground. She finally skidded to a stop, tossing up a hefty cloud of dust.

Her hair was blown into a mess and pink and brown powder covered her face, but Vanellope was grinning from ear to ear. She'd have to show that move to Ralphie, if the lummox ever showed up. Vanellope started to rub her face clean and looked around. She noticed that behind the edge of the cliff (that she had so amazingly driven across) was another cut in the land. It was smaller and had less of an overhang, but instead, half a dozen or so trees from the plateau above had fallen over and formed a little shelter at the base of the cliff.

Vanellope stopped rubbing her face. Something was weird about that cove. She hopped out of her kart and trotted closer, having to jump over one of the logs that had fallen onto the ground before she reached the entrance. The trees had made a surprisingly solid roof, and the area inside was well shaded. She had to step under the entryway before she could see anything.

It was bare, as one would expect, but near the very base of the cliff lay something unusual. It was a wrapper. A crumpled, faded pink wrapper with white text and particles of sugar stuck to it. She walked over to it, slowly. There were indentations next to it where the sugar had been disturbed. In one spot, she noticed as she looked closer, there was a collection of dark melted craters, as if raindrops had fallen there. Vanellope reached down to touch the wrapper. Then her hand froze.

She knew why this place felt weird. She straightened up and began to back out of the cove, one foot after the other, without taking her eyes off the wrapper. One of the low-hanging branches brushed against her back and startled her, but she kept backing up until her heel hit the fallen log outside. She plopped down onto it.

Vanellope had been here before. A long time ago, to the point where she had almost forgotten it. Almost. It was so far back, in fact, that it was one of the first things she remembered right after King Candy…after _Turbo_ had changed the code of the game. Her memories had been an empty slate at the time, her own name being the only thing she had known for certain.

She had woken up somewhere out in the empty landscape of Sugar Rush, away from any of the tracks. Eventually, she had come upon some of the racers and followed them, finding her way to the finish line. Concluding that she must also be a racer, she tried to join in. The others hadn't objected to it much at first. Then she had started glitching, and they began to look at her oddly. Then King Candy showed up.

All of a sudden everything seemed to go wrong. There was shouting; people yelling about a glitch and that she was dangerous. The racers started to turn on her and many of them backed away as if she had some disease. Then she was running. She had barely escaped the clutches of the police, thanks to an accidental glitch, and was running away from the race track. People were chasing her. She tried to lose them in a scrap yard, but it didn't work. Everywhere she turned there was someone pointing and shouting at her. She had almost been able to sneak away at one point before stumbling into a pile of wrappers, and the chase began again.

It felt like she had run from them for hours through dozens of levels. Eventually she came upon the candy cane forest and had scrambled up into the trees to hide in the branches. Her pursuers lost her trail and finally gave up altogether. She was exhausted, and barely had strength enough to come upon the cove of fallen trees. After dragging herself inside, Vanellope had used one of the candy wrappers from the scrap yard as a make-shift blanket. She had lain down in the most comfortable spot she could find and tried to go to sleep. Then she began to cry.

Vanellope remembered crying a lot after that. Anytime she came across the racers or the track the tears would threaten to flow. She didn't know who she was, or what she was supposed to be. There was no place for her to go. Then, one day, she got tired of it. She got sick of crying and feeling sorry for herself. Things didn't become any easier, but she accepted that the world was against her, and she was ready to butt heads with it until it gave in. Tears wouldn't change anything.

"BOO!"

Something grabbed Vanellope by the shoulder. Her tiny heart jumped in her chest and she jerked up into a standing position with a sharp gasp. Whipping around, she was greeted by a massive and familiar form. She found Ralph's round, grinning face far above her normal eye-level. Seeing her expression, however, his grin fell. Vanellope quickly dropped her head. She scolded herself for being too distracted to hear him coming.

"Sorry, Little Sister," Ralph said more softly, "I didn't mean to scare you. I mean- _yeah,_ I meant to scare you, but…y'know…" His sentence faltered and he rubbed his neck awkwardly, looking to the side.

Vanellope didn't say anything in response. She didn't look up, either. Ralph bent down on one knee to look her in the eyes.

"Everything okay?"

The girl clutched at the fabric of her sweater, still shaking. She bit her lip a little.

"Vanellope?"

She could hear the unsteadiness in Ralph's voice. She remembered for a second how much he had been pushed away and rejected. Everyone had thought he was the same destructive, uncaring personage that he played in his game. No one had ever tried to look beyond that.

Vanellope looked up at him, her chest tightening from the look of concern that it showed. How did a bad guy ever get that nice? Dashing forward, she threw herself onto his shoulder and buried her face in his plaid shirt. Ralph froze a bit from the sudden gesture, but exhaled softly and cupped her small body in his hands. Neither of them said anything for a bit. Vanellope sniffed lightly. She wouldn't let herself fully cry. Not in front of Ralph. Not over some stupid peppermint.

After a minute or so, she lifted her head and fell back into his hands, rubbing her slightly moistened eyes.

"Better?" asked her friend with a mixture of hope and care in his voice. She nodded and combed her hair back with her fingers, taking a deep breath.

"Sorry," said Vanellope with a final sniff, "It was something stupid."

Ralph's brow creased a little. "If it was stupid, you wouldn't be upset about it."

She stuck her tongue out at him, failing to hide a small smile. He chuckled a little, and she found herself grinning outright.

"Hey, Stinkbrain?" she asked him.

"Yeah?" He responded casually to what most would consider an insult.

"I'm glad you were dumb enough to crash your plane here." Ralph raised his eyebrow with a half-smile.

"Well, it wasn't an experience I enjoy remembering, but yeah, me too." His humor lulled for a moment. "You sure you're okay?"

Vanellope nodded and climbed up to sit on his shoulder.

"Mm-hm. Now then, as payment for being a jerk and scaring me," she began with an authoritative tone, "You shall personally carry me back to the racetrack."

"Don't you have a racing kart?"

"Yes, you shall carry that too."

Ralph gave her his best 'not amused' look.

"Whatever, Dutchess of Dorkiness," he retorted with a roll of his eyes, and turned to head back towards the finish line.

"Mush, my royal steed!"

"I thought this was a constitutional democracy."

* * *

Hope y'all enjoyed it!

Also, clearly I've been watching too much Motorcity, as I realize that I made Vanellope do the Sidewinder. :I


End file.
